The 21st Century Agora: Pedestrian Malls in College Towns

Contributor

Gina Ford, ASLA

Gina is a landscape architect, principal, and chair of Sasaki's Urban Studio. Her work encompasses a wide range of scales and project types, from public parks and plazas to large-scale landscape planning and waterfront projects. Read her bio here.

Google the term "pedestrian mall" and no doubt you will find a plethora of articles about this "civic fad" that has been proven an urban failure. And it's true to some extent. Many cities across the country experimented with closing downtown streets to vehicular traffic in the 1960's and 1970's only to re-open them to cars in recent decades. For lots of good thinking on this, see here, here, and here.

But just as a plant that grows in an undesired spot is dubbed a weed, the pedestrian mall is only a failure when planned in the wrong kind of city. Pedestrian malls in college towns, however, are far more likely to survive and thrive—often becoming a central, character-defining part of both the experience of the institution and an integral part of civic identity.

Full disclosure: I am a landscape architect in a firm that has worked in some of the cities—Boulder, Iowa City, and Burlington—where pedestrian malls were created in the heyday of the concept, but also go on thriving today. In addition, just this week I participated in the ribbon-cutting of Ithaca's newly renovated pedestrian mall, the Commons, the design of which I led as part of a brilliant team of Sasaki site practitioners, civic leaders, community participants, and builders. While I may be a bit biased about the potential well-designed malls can bring, given my direct involvement in designing them, I do think it is worth considering why pedestrian malls in college towns are prone to higher levels of success.

The Role of Open Space in College TownsUrban parks and open spaces in big cities are often seen as places for residents to step away from city life and reconnect with nature. Yet, many college towns share the distinct condition of being surrounded by what I like to call "big nature" —significant acreage of natural resources that play an important role in filling the recreational needs of city residents and students. The Rocky Mountains near Boulder, Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains in Burlington, the famed gorges of Ithaca—these landscapes provide an abundance of easily-accessible nature.

The role, then, of these downtown open spaces begins to seem distinctly different than that of open spaces within large cities. Rather than respite from urban life, the open areas in college towns are intensely social spaces where residents can participate in urban life and culture. In college towns throughout America, the pedestrian mall serves as a truly urban space that provides a distinct sense of vitality and community at the city's core.

Lake Champlain, Burlington, photo by Gina Ford

This Town needs an AgoraStudent populations in college towns also bring unique characteristics that lend to the success of the pedestrian mall model. Students are more accustomed to moving around cities without cars. They are a captive audience willingly participating in the retail and night-life that often line the more successful pedestrian mall projects. They also seek occasions to step "off-campus" and participate in the world outside of the institution's boundaries—which a focused downtown center provides.
Perhaps most importantly, however, college town populations—both the students and the residents— are often characterized by strong civic engagement and political activism. Akin to the Agora of ancient Greece, the pedestrian mall, as a focused "heart" for the entire community, often becomes the platform for the voice of the community. It is telling, for instance, that so many of the Occupy movements in towns like Boulder, Burlington, Charlottesville, and Iowa City staged their rallies or encampments on or near the town's pedestrian malls.

An Economy of Scale
Lastly, college towns with thriving pedestrian malls are unique in terms of their scale. Places like Boulder, Burlington, Ithaca, Charlottesville, and Iowa City have city populations fewer than 100,000 residents and metropolitan populations that rarely exceed 300,000. Where pedestrian malls in larger cities like Chicago, San Francisco, and New York have struggled or failed, the college town's relatively modest size has contributed to their mall's success. Where a mall in a larger city is just one of a number of core downtown spaces, the pedestrian malls of college towns often are the single defining open space of the downtown fabric, allowing for specific focus.

As Jessica Schmidt elegantly describes in her piece, Revisiting Pedestrian Malls, a key to success of pedestrian malls is well-organized civic leadership. This includes the entities that led the planning and design of the physical environment, but also the organizations that form to address the space's long-term maintenance, programming, and operations. While many cities allowed their malls to fall into disrepair, many college towns have well-formed entities that champion the long-term success of these spaces via ongoing retail strategy, active programming, financial oversight, and engaged community partnerships.

Pearl Street Mall in Boulder

Like all trends in American urbanism, absolute rules and cookie-cutter approaches rarely make sense across the great array and diversity of urban environments in our country. To dismiss the model of the pedestrian mall is to misunderstand the factors that have characterized both its success and failure. In addition to the college town model, resorts and transit models have also seen some success—and international models that are thriving provide a whole additional level of nuance across the uniqueness of diverse cultures. The relationship between the American college town and the pedestrian mall is an interesting case study in the alignment of population, need and identity.

To learn more about a college town pedestrian mall that is spurring all kinds of development and investment, take a look at this recent New York Times feature on Ithaca Commons, a project we just completed this summer.

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The Ithaca Commons is a two-block pedestrian mall that serves as the social and economic heart of Ithaca. Sasaki worked closely with city leadership and the community in a multi-year process to renovate...